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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does the narrator warn the reader to "never trust" (333)?
(a) May.
(b) Warm breezes.
(c) Hyacinths.
(d) Sparrows.

2. How old is Mrs. Widdup?
(a) 40.
(b) 30.
(c) 49.
(d) 35.

3. What is implied about Miss Coulson when she looks at the flowers "with the eye of a botanist" (334)?
(a) She is thinking of cutting them down.
(b) She is logical and unemotional.
(c) She is very intelligent.
(d) She is curious.

4. Whom does the narrator refer to as "the venerable and scarcely suspecting victim of May" (334)?
(a) Mr. Coulson.
(b) The iceman.
(c) Miss Coulson.
(d) Mrs. Widdup.

5. What kind of clam is a "chowder-doomed clam" (332)?
(a) One that is destined to be eaten in soup.
(b) One that is poisonous to humans.
(c) One that is confused by its surroundings.
(d) One that is personified as feeling worried.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Miss Coulson's believe about love?

2. What is the purpose of the allusion to the "virgin of Cologne" (334)?

3. When Mr. Coulson is irritated, he complains that no one in the house does what?

4. What does Mr. Coulson call Mrs. Widdup when she starts talking about "ivy and hand-organs" (335)?

5. Which neighborhood does Mr. Coulson live in?

Short Essay Questions

1. When Mr. Coulson comments that the spring weather is "lovely," his daughter replies "That's just it" (334). What does she mean by her reply?

2. When Mr. Coulson complains that no one in the house cares if he lives or dies, how does Mrs. Widdup's reply set the events of the story in motion?

3. How does O. Henry characterize the month of May?

4. In the passage where Miss Coulson stares out the window, the reader is told "The chirp of the sparrows gave her a pain. She mocked at May" (334). To what earlier passage is this a reference, and what is the significance of the reference?

5. When Miss Coulson says that the supposedly chilly weather is "An instance...of winter lingering in the lap of spring," what double meaning does she have in mind? (335).

6. When Mr. Coulson finally confesses his feelings to Mrs. Widdup, what drawback to himself does he acknowledge, and what advantage does he say balances this drawback out?

7. What is the rhetorical purpose of the allusions to Puck and Circe?

8. When rhetorical purposes are served by the passage where the narrator says that the scent of flowers was carried in through the window and "fought" with the scent of Mr. Coulson's gout medicine?

9. How does O. Henry use verbal misunderstandings to characterize Mrs. Widdup when she first appears in Mr. Coulson's room?

10. What happens when Mrs. Widdup makes an excuse to go into Mr. Coulson's room to speak with him after the ice is delivered?

(see the answer keys)

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